Despite howls of protest by the Left, the foreign-policy establishment, and European leaders, and contrary to misleading assessments by U.S. intelligence agencies, it is now clear that President Trumps decision last May to withdraw the United States from the controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA) was the right call and is a huge policy success.

Trumps JCPOA withdrawal did not lead to war with Iran, as many critics predicted. Instead, Iran is far more isolated than it was when President Trump assumed office. The United States has worked to unite its Middle East allies, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, against Iran and, in Warsaw this month, will co-chair an international conference with Poland on the threat from Iran. Irans economy is under unprecedented pressure thanks to reimposed U.S. sanctions, especially oil sanctions, with negative 1.5 percent growth in 2018 and an expected negative 3.6 percent growth in 2019. Irans current year-on-year inflation rate through last month was 40 percent.

Some Trump critics predicted that any effort by the president to reimpose U.S. sanctions lifted by the JCPOA would have little effect, since other parties to the agreement  in particular the EU, Germany, France, and the U.K.  would not follow suit. But numerous European companies have resisted pressure from their governments to defy reimposed U.S. sanctions. On January 31, European leaders announced a special finance facility to help European firms skirt U.S. sanctions on Iran, but that initiative is months behind schedule and few experts believe it will work.

iran is at the center of many, most of the worst Moslem Murder gangs and appears to support the rest of them....
one very good thing will be to help the Iranian people free themselves of the Teheran IslamoNazi dictatorship...

Iran did not threaten or invade or infiltrate or attack its neighbors under the prior government there (the one Jimmy Carter helped overthrow....)

[But numerous European companies have resisted pressure from their governments to defy reimposed U.S. sanctions. On January 31, European leaders announced a special finance facility to help European firms skirt U.S. sanctions on Iran, but that initiative is months behind schedule and few experts believe it will work.]

Even if the EU nationalized those companies, they’d still have to decide between the Iranian and the US market. No contest.

5
posted on 02/08/2019 4:23:49 PM PST
by Zhang Fei
(My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)

On January 31, European leaders announced a special finance facility to help European firms skirt U.S. sanctions on Iran, but that initiative is months behind schedule and few experts believe it will work.

Trump, The Don, made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

Do business with the USA or Iran.

It is a binary choice, you get to pick your trading partner. No threats, it's just business.

Yes. Iran is a hybrid economy. It can be likened to Socialist though it is theological even moreso. The central government controls the vast majority of resources of value - and mismanage them and their external affairs.

Venezuela and Iran both have the benefit of natural resources to help prop up the economy. They do not have a diverse economy, compared to the US. We produce more oil than anyone but it’s a small fraction of our total economy. Those two countries depend heavily on oil.

There may be some different contributing factors between the two countries but this is the expected outcome. They control the resources, this leads to inflation, forcing various allocations of capital, slowing the economy, creating a scarcity of goods and services which leads to ever more inflation... and ultimately to poverty.

With Iran, it’s personal. They are behind the training of terrorists in Iraq to deploy IEDs that killed and maimed thousands of Americans. They are also funding many other terrorist groups. So I want to see all those mullah’s run out on rails and hope the people separate religion from state. With Venezuela, I wish them well - they just need to get rid of their Socialist government and its policies and they can turn it around, like Trump said, it was the richest country in South America at one time.

Israel cannot do it. Not even with Saudi Arabia. It’s just not possible for many reasons. Distance, size of armed forces, current domestic defense needs, natural resources, population. Iran is probably 10-12 times more populated than Israel.

Iran would be formidable to all but the US, and maybe China and Russia, in any conventional war. I am not advocating a military attack on Iran, just saying. It’s a hard target.

I say stay the course Trump has set. We should have made them pay a price years ago for all the IEDs they are behind. But Obama washed all that away. So for now, economic and political pressure to force a change in government.

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